Its no secret today’s world of digital marketing is a rapidly-changing landscape where its easy to be overwhelmed by choices, and frustratingly difficult to predict how much ROI you’ll receive on the money you spend before you spend it.
With that in mind we’d like to talk about Marketing Lists and where they sit in 2020. Its no secret some marketers believe Marketing Lists are no longer the golden ticket to lead generation they once were, and as we’ve been using them for more than 20 years and have watched the ways they’re used change enormously over that time we think we’re in a unique position to comment.
So we’d like to present you with a list of four commonly-cited reasons why using Marketing Lists is a good idea, and four why they may not be.
Arguments in favor of Marketing Lists
Speedy addition of emails
You probably already know Email Marketing has the greatest ROI of any marketing channel, and that reguarly promoting to your list of clients is an essential aspect of doing business.
What if you wish to grow your business outside of those who’ve already contacted you? That’s where a quick injection of brand new email contacts could allow you double your lead count for the week, perhaps allowing you to reach that elusive monthly target. You don’t have to learn any new software or design any new ads, just plug in the new emails and go.
Cheap alternative to building an opt-in list
Building a large email opt-in subscriber list can not only be slow, but expensive. The most common method is to bring people to your website and then have them subscribe via a sign-up form.
Marketing Lists allow you to turn that process on its head. Instead of paying for advertising to attract people in the hope a vanishingly-small percentage will subscribe, you effectively pay for subscribers directly with the reassurance of knowing exactly how many you’ll be receiving.
Great way to tap into a new market or area
Sooner or later you’ll want to expand your business’ horizons and pursue a new type of customer. The difficulty then is knowing how to advertise in such a way that you attract the kinds of kinds of people you want.
The benfit of Marketing Lists is allowing you to directly choose the industry, region, or demographics you wish to expand into, and immediately start reaching those people.
Reduce reliance on existing clients
You probably know how it feels to be eager for new business to meet your quota or target, but after going over your client list with a fine-tooth-comb still come up short.
A sad reality of our Covid-affected economy is that many of our clients are no longer able to purchase they way they once did, or worse yet are no longer with us. Replacing them with newcomers is easier said than done, but using Marketing Lists to reach out to thousands of new faces is a viable step towards making it happen.
Arguments against Marketing Lists
Innaccurate data of questionable origin
Marketing Lists are only as useful as the quality of their data allows, and this is a problem in an industry where regulatory standards are absent and fly-by-night operators come and go. Not only that, consumers often have no idea from where or how the data they purchase was generated.
So it isn’t surprising to learn the reputation of Marketing Lists has suffered thanks to the shoddy offerings of the worst offenders. By contrast, our five years’ experience in the industry has led us to derive & regularly update our data only from publicly-available sources.
Email platform & send reputation issues
Using Marketing Lists to send emails has never been more popular, but the best way to do it it isn’t always obvious. Some email platforms do not allow the use of Marketing Lists, while another concern is by using them and having too many emails flagged as Junk the deliverability of other emails you send may suffer.
This is why it can sometimes a good idea to send to emails derived from Marketing Lists on a separate email platform, one such as Mailrelay which happily permits their use.
Possibility of spam complaints
Though the situation is not as complex as you may think, our 20+ years of experience using Marketing Lists is why we offer our own Email Marketing Service to businesses who’d prefer we handle the hassles for them.
Unknown ROI & negative brand impact
As we mentioned earlier, not all marketing lists are created equal and those with incorrect or out-of-date data will deliver ROI below expectations, making it important to purchase them only from reputable vendors where you can be assured the data is up-to-date and accurate.
Some businesses are also concerned that marketing to non-subscriber email addresses has the potential to create a backlash which could damage their image. Our own Email Marketing clients have reported quite the opposite, observing that occasional complaints are greatly overshadowed by the many new leads they recieve. Having read that negative publicity can help drive sales we are very much in the camp of believing all publicity is good publicity.
This concludes the article, but if you’d like us to answer any of your specfic Marketing List questions please Contact Us and we’ll be happy to share everything we’ve learned. We’re also here to help with your next marketing campaign in any way we can.